Eternity

Time is a line drawn in both directions,

encompassing past, present, and future.

Eternity is a vast ocean, consisting of an infinite number

of individual droplets indistinguishable from the whole

when viewed as such.

We can study each droplet, examining it under a microscope,

which magnifies it beyond its original purport.

When it is returned to the ocean who can tell where it went?

Who can retrieve it? Identify it?

Why then do we place greater importance

on some moments in time over others?

The eyes of God behold all moments in time as one.

All droplets of the water as an ocean.

The only one who cares about this moment more than another

is the one who sees it as separate from all others. 

For this observer, this moment is a lightly golden sunset

upon dusky blue mountains, a band of rippling gold upon the water.

For another it may be a time to say goodbye,

to let go of the bonds that tether us to physical dwellings.

Dwellings that separate us from the vast ocean,

which is our true abode, our eternal existence.

We must let go of the grasping mind and the restricting body

and lose ourselves in the ocean of life that is God, Tao, Being.

That journey begins always in this moment in time.

© 2005, 2009 Beth Mitchum
Reprinted with permission from bethwor(l)ds: 20 years of poetry 
Published by UltraVioletLove Publishing